


A Life We Can't Hide From

by atimi (bertee)



Category: Supernatural RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, M/M, Recreational Drug Use, Underage Drinking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-10-16
Updated: 2009-10-16
Packaged: 2017-11-02 03:44:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,674
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/364603
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bertee/pseuds/atimi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>High school AU. Jensen knew hauling Jared's drunk ass home from a party wouldn't be the easiest thing ever but he didn't expect it to end like this.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Life We Can't Hide From

**Author's Note:**

> A remix of [Always with Me, Always with You](http://thenyxie.livejournal.com/570660.html) by [theyxie](http://thenyxie.livejournal.com).

When he pulled up at the house, the first thing Jensen saw was Chad making out with shrubbery.

Hoping this wasn't a sign of the success of the party as a whole, he scooted across the Toyota's front seat to exit via the passenger door; according to his Uncle Bill who'd owned the Corolla for eight years before it had been passed on to Jensen, the driver's door hadn't worked right since that bull had charged it back in '99.

The sounds of the Burbank High Spring Fling after-party grew louder as he got closer to the house, cheers and whoops from the backyard rising over the burble of conversation and the low pulse of music. Chad's groans also got louder and having been making an effort to ignore him, Jensen glanced his way when he heard him murmur, "Oh, yeah, baby, right there."

Jensen cleared his throat. "Um, Chad?"

Chad's head snapped up. There was a leaf in his nose. "Hey, uh, Jared's friend."

"Jensen."

"Right." He spat out a twig and pointed a wavering finger in Jensen's direction. "Y'know, it's kinda weird for you to be hanging out with us high school kids. You're like what?" He squinted at Jensen. "Thirty-five?"

"I'm twenty-two, Chad."

Chad shrugged. "S'the grandpa sweaters. S'always the grandpa sweaters."

He made it sound like grandpa sweaters had committed some sort of crime but Jensen decided not to put too much stock in the opinion of a guy who was getting to second base with a hedge. "Guess it's a good thing I'm not here to hang out with you then. Someone called me and said Jared needed a ride home."

Chad grimaced. "Dude needs a lot more than that." He clapped Jensen on the shoulder, allowing Jensen to see that yes, his tux did have glittery lightning bolts on the sleeves. "Go rescue him before he's too drunk to stand."

"I'm on it." Surprised that Chad was actually being helpful, Jensen returned the favor and pointed out, "Um, you do know that's a bush, right?"

Chad gasped and put a protective arm around the bush in question, and Jensen beat a hasty retreat when he heard him whisper into the branches, "Don't worry, baby. I know Sophia ain't got nothing on you."

Making his way around to the back of the house, Jensen looked briefly at the couples making out (in the bushes rather than with the bushes) but didn't find Jared there. There was some kind of strip sumo battle taking place in the middle of the grass where guys Jensen didn't recognize were stripping down to their bow-ties and underwear and launching themselves at each other with shrill war cries while their girlfriends watched and cheered.

Jensen was quietly relieved when he didn't find Jared there either.

He headed inside, away from the bulk of the partygoers, and avoided the plastic cups and split food that littered the floor as he continued his Jared-hunt. He bypassed a girl in a rumpled satin dress crying about how "You don't like me for me! No-one does!", two guys who stunk of weed and who were debating the merits of pixies versus leprechauns in a battle, and a group of girls jumping up and down and singing along to The Proclaimers.

However, his search ended the moment he stepped into the hallway and was greeted by the joyful shout, "Jensen!"

He turned towards the voice and his eyes widened when he saw a very tall, very drunk, and very cheerful Jared Padalecki leap off the stairs with a delighted whoop. In mid-air, he sort of resembled one of the flying tree squirrels from the program he and Kane had watched on the Discovery Channel that afternoon and Jensen was too taken aback by this revelation to get out of the way before Jared crashed into him in a move that was half-hug, half-flail.

His breath stank of god-knows-what although when he burped, Jensen hazarded a guess that pepperoni pizza had been involved somewhere along the line.

Oblivious to the smell of his breath, Jared grinned down at Jensen who was now trapped in his arms. "Hey, Jen! Did you miss me?"

"Yep," Jensen replied sarcastically. "I missed you so much that I drove across town to pick you up at 1am instead of waiting till tomorrow to find out how your dance went."

"Dance was awesome," Jared slurred, lips brushing Jensen's temple since he seemed reluctant to ease up on the hug. "Was punch and music and stuff." A jolt of tension ran through their embrace and Jared's casual tone sounded horribly fake when he added, "And me and Genevieve broke up."

Suddenly the phone call that evening made a lot more sense.

Easing himself free, Jensen met his eyes and said sincerely, "I'm sorry, man."

"S'okay," Jared mumbled but looked forlorn anyway. "It was gonna happen anyway. Timing just sucked, I guess."

"Oh, thank God!" another voice piped up from the kitchen door.

A tiny, dark-haired girl in a red prom dress and smeared lipstick strode up and eyed Jensen hopefully. "Are you Jensen? The guy I called?"

"Yeah-"

"I'm Sandy," she informed him with a wave. "Sorry for calling you but I tried speed-dial on his cell and you were the one who came up."

The phone call made even more sense now. Especially the part where the caller had asked if Jensen was Jared's mom. (Jensen had made a mental note to growl more when speaking on the phone to avoid being mistaken for a woman again.)

"And you called me because...?"

Sandy arched an eyebrow and gestured at Jared.

Jared draped his bow-tie across Jensen's head and giggled.

"That makes sense," Jensen admitted. "Has he been okay?"

"Since Genevieve broke up with him?" Sandy sighed. "Not exactly. He's had way too much to drink and Adrianne wanted him out of here before he threw up on her parents' carpet." Sandy followed Jensen's gaze to the decidedly vomity stain outside the bathroom. "Oh, that wasn't him. Turns out Adrianne herself is kind of a dark horse when it comes to upchucking on the floor."

Jared sniggered, still leaning heavily against Jensen, and Sandy looked at him fondly as she said, "You should get him home anyway. He was asking for you a while back, and staying at your place might keep him from getting grounded for the next ever by his parents if he goes back like this." She wrinkled her nose. "Wait, you do have a place right? You're not one of those college guys who lives in his mom's basement?"

"I have a place," Jensen confirmed, rolling his eyes when Jared poked his cheek with his oddly pointy nose. "What happened with Genevieve? Should I be expectin' a repeat performance of the drinking and pouting tomorrow?"

"Encore!" Jared yelled in his ear.

From somewhere upstairs a guy yelled back, "Encores kill kittens!"

"Liar!" Jared bellowed cheerfully. "Kittens are fuckin' immortal!"

That seemed to be the conclusion to that particular conversation and Jensen turned back to Sandy, ears still ringing as she answered, "He got all the crying out of the way before 11 so he should be okay once he sleeps it off." She sipped her drink and tucked her hair behind her ear. "Him and Genevieve were totally going to split up anyway but it was such a bitch move to do it right in the middle of Spring Fling."

"Hey," Jared chided, trying to clap a hand over Sandy's mouth but getting her nose instead. "Genevieve's not a bitch." His attention turned to Jensen as he informed him solemnly, "Her hair is too shiny for her to be a bitch. S'just not right." His lips curved into a beaming smile when he patted Jensen's head experimentally. "Your hair's pretty shiny too. S'awesome."

Jensen's eyeroll was echoed by Sandy and she instructed calmly, "Get the giant home, okay? Tell him I'll bring his slinky to school on Monday."

"Slinky?" Jensen looked at her skeptically. "Tell me that's a euphemism or something."

"How long have you known this guy?"

"Sixteen years."

"And you honestly think he wouldn't bring a slinky to a school dance?"

"Point taken," Jensen conceded. Jared was now entranced by the ceiling fan and Jensen nudged him, voice low and tempting, "You wanna head home now, Jay? There's some cold pizza in the fridge and this week's 90210 is still on the DVR."

Jared brightened at that. "Where's your car?"

With a final grateful glance at Sandy, Jensen nodded towards the front door. "Right through there, Padalecki."

Jared squinted at the door. Apparently Chad had been rubbing off on him. "Awesome." He slapped Jensen's ass and ordered, "Onward, Toronado!"

"Toronado?" With Jared leaning on him lazily, Jensen made his way over to the door and out into the night air. "I don't even get to be Robin to your Batman? I have to be a horse to your Zorro?"

"You can be Lois Lane to my Superman," Jared decreed magnanimously before conducting an impromptu tap-dance on the tiled path.

Finding himself in a headlock, Jensen waited for him to stop jiggling before freeing himself and prodded Jared to keep walking while he steered him towards the waiting car.

Despite a brief pause for Jared to shout at the still-shrubbery-involved Chad to "Use a condom, fucker!", they made it to Jensen's Toyota without further incident. Admittedly, Jensen did need to dangle his car keys to lure Jared inside but once he'd been safely belted in, everything was fine as they began the drive home.

Or at least it was fine until Jared commented absently, "You could be my Lois Lane, y'know."

"Gee, thanks, Jared." Jensen chuckled. "Think I'll pass though."

Jared leaned his head back against the seat, neck long and exposed in the glow from the streetlights. "You'd be better at it. Better than Gen anyway."

"Jen? Who-" He re-spelled the name in his head and cringed at his mistake. "Oh." He glanced over at Jared as they swung a right. "I'm really sorry, Jay. I know you liked her."

"It was never gonna work out." He sighed, slipping from maudlin to almost philosophical. "I don't know how much of this shit is ever going to work out sometimes. I mean, some days I think we're all gonna last forever; I'm gonna be fifty and still hanging out with Sandy and Adrianne, and teaching Chad how to behave in public."

Jensen thought back to the unfortunate hedge and teased, hoping to lighten the mood, "Nice work with that."

Jared just smiled wryly. "I try." His smile dropped away. "But I'm serious, Jensen. There's only a couple months left of high school and then there's college and jobs and, I don't know, fuckin' real life. And you think you're going to be with someone forever or you say that you're going to be friends forever, but it's never going to happen, is it?"

"Jared-"

Jensen kept his eyes on the road but he could feel Jared's gaze on him. "How do I know what's going to last, Jen?"

"It doesn't matter about lasting," Jensen murmured quietly. "You just need to enjoy it while it does last and then let it go when it's over."

"I can do that," Jared said, clearly working through what Jensen had said but still sounding melancholy as he elaborated, "Hell, I did that with Genevieve. It was kind of a shock and I'd be lyin' if I didn't say I missed her, but I'm okay with it." He sounded almost surprised. "I really am. But the thought of leaving you behind some day? I don't know how I'm ever gonna be good with that, man."

The familiar purple and orange mailbox of Jensen's house was visible in the beam of the headlights and he swung the car onto the drive. He killed the engine and listened to Jared's slow inhale before speaking to fill the quietness, "You don't need to leave me behind."

He shifted in his seat to look at him face on and saw that Jared was listening intently. "I've known you since you were in diapers, Jay. I was five and you were this chubby little one-year-old who loved his swing, his brother, and my crayons. In that order."

Jared laughed, relaxed and smooth, and Jensen continued, "God knows we've had fights, but we survived you stealing my GI Joe, your aunt telling me I was a bad influence on her poor innocent Jared, my fuckin' brother outing me in front of both our families, and you winding up in hospital when you got in that accident last year. And that's not even counting having to deal with Meg and Mac, and Kane and Alexis, and everybody else coming in and out of our lives."

"And Chad now," Jared chimed in. "I'm still not sure how that happened."

Jensen grinned. "If we managed all that, I think we can handle you growing up and going to college."

Jared laughed and slumped against the seat, tired and loose-limbed. "We're totally Superman and Lois Lane." He looked over at Jensen, the lights from the street glinting in his eyes, and a lazy smile on his lips. "You gonna open the car door for me then, Superman? You know I can never work the handle."

Jensen sighed loudly as he got to his knees and clambered over Jared to get to the door handle, but couldn't hide his smile at being the designated Superman out of the two of them. "You'd make an awesome Lois."

The car door swung open as Jared said, tipsy and smug, "Fuck yeah, I would. We'd be awesome together."

He tilted his head up just as Jensen turned back to tell him that the door was open.

When their lips met, it was an accident, something to be joked about in the morning - Hey, remember how we accidentally kissed last night? Good times. - but when Jared's tongue started to trace the inside of Jensen's top lip, it felt like anything but an accident.

He tasted like Jensen would have expected after a night of cheap drinks and bad food but he couldn't bring himself to care too much when Jared gasped against him, a soft, breathy moan like someone dreaming in their sleep. Jensen's eyes fluttered closed and his hands stayed frozen in place at his side, all his attention on the gentle, tentative touch of Jared's tongue and the hot, vulnerable sensation of Jared's lips on his own.

If he'd been given a year, Jensen wasn't sure he'd have been able to work out what either of them were thinking right at that moment.

However, whatever hopes had sparked up in those few seconds faded back to a dim flame when Jared pulled back for breath and all but fell out of the Corolla with a happy laugh and the comment, "Wow..."

The lurch of his body sent Jensen falling back across the seats. He untangled their legs to let Jared loose and watched mutely as he stumbled to his feet and trailed a zigzagging path across the grass to the front door of Jensen's shared house. He banged on the door and when it didn't open of its own accord, he leaned against it and launched into a truly terrible rendition of "Onward Christian Soldiers", singing up to the stars which scattered the night sky.

Jensen felt like his body had switched off.

His fingers were numb as they fumbled to slide the key in the lock; his hands were numb as he coaxed a glass of water down Jared's throat; his arms were numb when he manhandled a suddenly exhausted Jared onto the couch to sleep; and his face felt numb as he stared at himself in the cracked mirror over the bathroom sink.

He was numb when he climbed under his sheets.

It was only when he was laying in bed, staring at the ceiling and replaying Jared's actions over and over, that he felt his lips tingle.


End file.
